Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar 'carries bag full of dynamite and surrounds himself with 20 hostages' to stop Israel wiping him out as war rages on a year since 'last sighting' just three days after October 7

Over the past year, Israel has picked off the Hamas leadership one by one - with the chief of the country's army declaring yesterday that the terror group's military wing has been 'defeated'.

But there is one high value target still remaining - October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar.

The terror group's leader has remained elusive throughout the year-long war, with the only apparent glimpse of him coming in a video filmed just a couple of days after the bloody conflict began.

The black and white images, uncovered by IDF troops during a raid earlier this year, show a man believed to be Sinwar making his way through a tunnel along with his wife and three children, while carrying a large bag.

'In that bag is about 25kg of dynamite. Around him are at least 20 hostages,' according to Kobi Michael, Sinwar's former Shin Bet interrogator. 'A few times we have had the chance to kill him, but if we do, he will kill all the hostages around him.' 

Some 97 hostages who were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, are believed to still be in Gaza a year on. It is not known how many have died in captivity.

In a year of retribution for the cross-border terror attack by Hamas, relentless Israel bombing of Gaza has resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel's military said it has hit more than 40,000 targets, found 4,700 tunnel shafts and destroyed 1,000 rocket launcher sites during its year-long bombardment of the Strip.

Sinwar is unrepentant about the October 7 attacks, people in contact with him have said, despite unleashing an Israeli invasion that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, laid waste to his homeland and rained destruction on ally Hezbollah.

The list of Hamas leaders killed in the months since includes Mohammed Deif, the head of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, who was killed in an airstrike on Gaza.

Saleh al-Arouri, a founding commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, was assassinated in an explosion in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, which is a stronghold for Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and part of Iran's 'Axis of Resistance'.

Then in July, the leader of Hamas's political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, was blown up, most likely by Israel, while visiting Tehran to attend the inauguration of the Iranian president.

Sinwar, 62, was appointed as the leader of Hamas after Haniyeh's assassination. 

'Yahya Sinwar will never surrender,' Michael told The Times. 'He's dreaming about staying on as the leader of Hamas in Gaza. He's thinking now about the next massacre. That man must be killed.'

Operating from the shadows of a network of labyrinthine tunnels under Gaza, Israeli sources said Sinwar and his brother, also a top commander, have so far dodged airstrikes.

Sinwar operates in secrecy, moving constantly and using trusted messengers for non-digital communication, according to Hamas officials.

Last month, reports emerged that Sinwar had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, but these were not confirmed and intelligence sources refuted the claims.

Israeli journalist Ben Caspit quoted sources as saying: 'There have also been times in the past when he disappeared and we thought he was dead, but then he reappeared.' 

In December, reports swirled that Sinwar may have been killed, wounded, or could have fled to Sinai in Egypt. 

It later emerged that he had been out of touch with his subordinates as part of his hiding tactics.

Sinwar was born in Khan Younis and became the protégé of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas's founder, as a young man.

His brutal reputation for murdering suspected Israeli collaborators earned him the nickname the Butcher of Khan Younis, and he spent a period in Israeli jail before rising all the way up the ranks of Hamas.

Obsessive, disciplined and dictatorial, the wiry, grey-haired leader is one of Hamas' most hardline elements and appears hell-bent on continuing the fight against Israel. 

His elimination is among the Israeli military's top priorities. He is considered to have been the architect of the October 7 massacre, which saw 1,200 people killed and 250 taken as hostages by Hamas and other terror groups, according to Israeli tallies.

'Yahya Sinwar is the face of evil,' said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a spokesman for the IDF, said in the days after the attack. 'He is the mastermind behind this, like bin Laden was.

'He built his career on murdering Palestinians when he understood they were collaborators. That's how he became known as the butcher of Khan Younis.'

Hecht vowed that Israeli troops would not rest until he was found and killed, and declared him a 'dead man walking'.

Ehud Yaari, 79, an Israeli journalist who claims to have been in contact with Sinwar via intermediaries until a few months ago, said Israel is 'extremely reluctant' to kill the terror chief because of his use of hostages as human shields.

Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah using US-made bunker-busting bombs, which penetrate deep into their targets before exploding,would undoubtedly kill any hostages around Sinwar as well as the target himself. 

'Did they have opportunities? Yes. But who will give the order? I don't know of any Israeli leader who would sanction the bombing of Sinwar when there are Israeli hostages around him.'

The Hamas chief was added to the US list of the most wanted 'international terrorists' in 2015, and has taunted Israel and its ally for years.

In a show of defiance two years ago, he ended one of his few public speeches by inviting Israel to assassinate him, proclaiming: 'I will walk back home after this meeting.' He then did so, shaking hands and taking selfies with people in the streets.